The Correspondence (c. 16261659) of Dorothy Percy Sidney, Countess of Leicester

Prize: Winner of the Josephine Roberts Edition Prize, awarded by the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women in 2011 'Filling in the gaps between the 140 items is a forty-eight page Introduction that focuses on the domestic relationships of this large, well-connected family, a table and family tree indicating all the family members of importance, an eleven-page chronology, and an Appendix listing the eighty books the Countess possessed at her death ... this welcome edition shows how much can be learned from the daily letters of one not very famous woman, married into a distinguished lineage, about court entanglements, marriage negotiations, backstage influences on the public life of aristocrats dedicated (until their disillusionment) to the kings service, and the domestic and financial affairs of a magnate family whose documentary record will doubtless yield further riches, if it continues to be imaginatively interrogated.' The Library 'Both its exacting introduction and its thorough collection and consideration of the letters of Dorothy Percy Sidney make Brennan, Kinnamon, and Hannays edition an asset to Sidney scholars around the world. Its modernized spellings promise to reveal the importance of Dorothys writing to all levels of researchers.' Notes and Queries

Michael G. Brennan, Margaret P. Hannay and Noel J. Kinnamon have together edited Domestic Politics and Family Absence (Ashgate, 2005); and The Collected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke for the Oxford English Texts Series (Oxford UP, 1998) ;and a modern-spelling edition for students and general readers, Selected Works of Mary Sidney Herbert, Countess of Pembroke (MRTS, 2005). They are currently editing The Correspondence of Rowland Whyte and Robert Sidney, first Earl of Leicester. Margaret Hannay, Professor of English at Siena College, is the author of Philip's Phoenix: Mary Sidney, Countess of Pembroke (Oxford UP, 1990), editor of Silent but for the Word: Tudor Women as Patrons, Translators, and Writers of Religious Works (Kent State UP, 1985), and editor, with Susanne Woods, of Teaching Tudor and Stuart Women Writers (MLA, 2000). Michael G. Brennan, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Leeds, is the author of The Origins of the Grand Tour (Ashgate, 2005) and The Sidneys of Penshurst and the Monarchy, 1500-1700 (Ashgate, forthcoming. He is also author of Literary Patronage in the English Renaissance: The Pembroke Family (Routledge, 1988); and has edited Lady Mary Wroth's Love's Victor: The Penshurst Manuscript (Roxburghe Club, 1988). With Noel Kinnamon he has published A Sidney Chronology: 1554-1654 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and has published extensively on Renaissance travel writings.

Contents: Introduction; Dorothy Percy Sidney's Life and Writings: Childhood and family heritage; Courtship; Early married life and family association (1616-19); Family life and court politics (1619-26); Royal service (1626-43); Dorothy Percy Sidney's writings; The Sidneys in the Civil Wars and the Commonwealth (1643-59). A Note on the Text: General description of the letters; Principles of modernization; Ciphers. The Correspondenceof Dorothy Percy Sidney, Countess of Leicester; Last Will and Testament documents; Persons and places; Appendices; Index.